Vehicle-hub.



Afton/Hey,

No. 709,24I. Patented Sept. I6, |902.

E. B. PHILLIPS.

VEHICLE HUB.

(Application led Oct. 1, 1901.) l(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet l.

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1 E. B. PHILLIPS.

VEHILE HUB.

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IINiTnD ATENT trice.

VEHICLE-HUB.

PECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 709,241, dated September 16, 1902.

Application tiled October 1,1901. Serial No. 77,249. (No model.)

To @ZZ whom, t may cm1/cern.

Be it known that l, EMMETT B. PHILLIPS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Richmond, in the county of Henrico and State of Virginia, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Vehicle-Hubs, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawings.

This invention relates to hubs for vehiclewheels, and has for its object to provide a hub with spokes seated therein more firmly than are the spokes in hubs as ordinarily made, which shall permit of the easy withdrawal of the spokes for purposes ot' repair, which shall have the spokes at their inner ends independent of each other, whereby the movement of one in its socket shall not loosen or alect the hold upon the others, and Whereby other advantageous ends can be reached.

Figure l is a longitudinal section of a hub embodying my improvements. Fig. 2 is a cross-section. Fig. 3 is a section, on asmaller scale, of the entire wheel. Fig. lisa partial -sectional view of the hub and spokes.

The hub proper is composed of a metallic ring or band and a wooden core part, the latter being relatively large and made ot wood of a single piece turned to the desired shape and having spoke sockets or mortises cut therein. The wooden 4part is indicated by A as a whole,'and the metallic band or ring by B. Heretoforeit has been customary to make hubs of this general character by employing outside of the wooden hub part a solid metallic ring which has a peripheral surface that is smooth and continuous, except where perforated for the spokes. It has also been customary to cut the mortises in the metal in such waythat they ared either outward or inward-that is to say, so that the spoke apertures or sockets in the metal either widened from the outer surface of the ring toward the inner surface or narrowed. The purpose in the former case, where the socket widened inwardly, was to have the wood at the shouldered part of the spoke-tenen expand and form a dovetail connection to prevent its outward escape. It has been found that in tollowing this line of manufacture there has been much labor and expense incident to the special construction and preparation of the spoke at the inner end in order to obtain the dovetail lock described, and therefore a corresponding amount of trouble and expense has been incident to the removal of the spoke in case of breakage or for the purpose of repair. In the other case, where the spokesocket in the metal band narrowed inwardly, the object has been to attain a wedge action inward, and this has always required a special cutting or shaping of the shouldered part of the tenon and a reducing of its strength transversely. Again, in the earlier hubs of which I have knowledge the mortises in the wooden hub have been so cut in relation to the interior skein or spindle-aperture that each tenon came actually or practicallyinto contact with those that were adjacent, and when all were in place they mutually and reciprocally exerted a pressure one upon the others around the circle; but when one for anycausewas loosened more or less looseness was produced in the entire series. I have succeeded in overcoming those difficulties by forming the parts and arranging them in the way illustrated, and thereby provide a wheel which is lighter than those of the sorts referred to without any loss of strength and one which can be much more cheaply made initially and which can be readily and quickly repaired when necessary.

The metal band B is not formed as a solid ring ot' metal with a substantially continuous or smooth externalsurface except at the apertures, but in such Way that an amount of metal less than that heretofore used can give greater reinforcing hold or grip on the spokes. The base part bis relatively wider than heretofore, but thinner, and the upwardly-projecting iianges or socket-walls b' are carried considerably higher than has been common. Each socket c c' in the ring B, it will be seen, has walls which are parallel to each other, both those at the sides and those at the ends. The spoke, therefore, requires no special cutting or shaping at points adjacent to the smaller tenon and the entire thickness of the wood of the spoke is available to resist breakage transversely, and this, in conjunction with the upwardly-extended flanges or walls b', insures great strength. The parallelism of the front and rear sides (those extending in the direction of the axis of the wheel) of the sockets are shown in Figs. 2 and 4 and of the inner and outer sides (those extending parallel with the general plane of the Wheel) in Fig. 1. The front and rear sides of the IOO sockets would be tangential if continued toward the wheel-center to a circle having a diameter equal to the interior and shorter dimension of the socket.

The spokes are indicated by D, the parts rectangular in section seated in the metallic ring by d, and the inner reduced tenon by d. The mortises a a in the wooden hub part are on three sides parallel with radial lines,butare so arranged each as to the next and with relation to the spindle-aperture thata relatively large amount of solid hub liber is left at a2 between the inner ends of adjacent tenons, and consequently no matter how tightly a given spoke may be driven into its mortise its inner end will have noiniluence upon the inner ends of the adjacent spokes, and, vice versa, any one of them can be withdrawn without tending to loosen any of the others in the series, this being in contradistinction from those constructions wherein the mortises are so cut and the tenons so inserted that the inner ends of the latter come actually or practically into contact or so close as to transmit a pressure laterally around the circle of tenons. The mortises u, 0;' are cut and arranged so as to correspond with the mortises or sockets cc in the metallic band. The front walls of the sockets a are radial to the hub-axis; but the rear walls are inclined, the sockets in the wood narrowing inwardly. In the sockets et the front walls and rear walls are both inclined, but at dierent angles to the axis. The spokes D are straight at their inner edges continuously from the interior surface of the wooden hub to the outer surface of the metal at l; but the outer edges of the inner thin tenons d' are inclined at 2 toward the inner edges. This gives a wedge shape to the thin tenons, and the spokes can be driven to place with an increase in grip between the wood of the hub and that of the tenon without interference or modication from the metal ring, in which there is indeed a snug tit, but no wedging action.

From the above description it will be seen that the sockets @and three sides of the mortises a are arranged so as to be parallel with radial lines-that is to say, the planes of this series of sockets and mortises,which are transverse to the axis of the hub, are at right angles to the axis, but the sockets c and ct', as

concerns their longitudinal lines,are inclined to the axis of the hub and to the transverse plane of the sockets and mortises c a., and in consequence the spokes D', which at their inner ends are inserted into the sockets and mortises c ct',are inclined inward somewhat toward the plane of the wheel-rim E, while the spokes D lie throughout in the planes of the said wheel-rim. This insures the proper dish of the wheel.

What I claim is- 1. A vehicle-hub composed of the central wooden block A formed with the central spindle-aperture and with the alternating mortises a, a, those at a being arranged with their radial axes substantially at right angles to the axis of the hub and those at a having their corresponding axes inclined to the axis of the hub, each of said mortises a, a, having at its end a wall 2 inclined to the opposite wall, the spokes having relatively thin tenons d litted in the said mortises and having one edge tapered or inclined and the clamping-ring B formed with the sockets c, c',

said sockets being each su bstantially uniform in cross-section.

2. The hub composed of the central wooden block A made in one piece and formed with the central spindle-aperture and the mortises a., a separated each at its inner end from the next by a relatively wide mass of wood, as at a2, in combination with the continuous metallic band B having the Wide relatively thin base b, with the two rows of spoke-sockets c, c', those of one row staggered as to those of the other, and surrounded by the upwardlyelongated flanges b', the interior walls of each of the said flanges being parallel to each other from the outer surface of the metal to the surface of the wooden block front and rear, and the walls of the sockets c being inclined relatively to` the walls of the sockets c, and the spokes D having the tenons d with their inner ends relatively remote from each other,

and having the shouldered parts d uniform i throughout in cross-section, as described.

3. In a wheel,the combination with the hub, the spokes and the felly, ot'a spoke-supporting metallic band surrounding the hub and having outwardly-projecting rectangular sockets for the spokes, said sockets having opposing walls for the four sides of the spoke, the opposing walls being parallel with each otherbetween the outer and inner peripheries of the said band.

4. In awheel the combination with the hub, the spokes and the folly, of aspoke-supporting metallic band surrounding the hub and having sockets for the spokes, said sockets having opposing parallel inwardly and outwardly extending walls for the four sides of the spoke and said hub having mortises for the spoketenons, the mortises being formed with opposing parallel side walls and with end walls, one of which walls 2 is inclined relative to the other.

5. In a wheel,the combination with the mortised hub, the spokes provided with tenons, and the felly, of a metallic band having radial apertures for the spokes, the apertures of said band and those parts of the spokes engaged thereby being of uniform crosssection without taper, the spoke-tenons being tapered on one edge, and the mortises being shaped to correspond with said tenons, substantially as set forth.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

EMMETT B. PHILLIPS.

Witnesses:

W. O. MICHAELS, CHAs. K. IMWILLIs IOO IIO 

